Escalating his attack on the Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) government, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday called it an “enemy of farmers” and accused the State of not yet submitting the list of beneficiaries under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Scheme (PMKSNS).
Addressing a public rally in Kalaburagi, which is the second public meeting to be addressed by him in the State ahead of the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls, the Prime Minister continued to ridicule Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy by calling him “remote-controlled Chief Minister.”
“Twelve crore families that have less than five-acre land will together get ₹75,000 crore every year directly to their bank accounts under PMKSNS. Can you imagine how the rural economy will start running when the villagers receive ₹75,000 crore every year? One crore people in the country have already received the money. As many as 71 lakh people in Karnataka will benefit from the scheme. But the [State] government, the Congress that came to power by backstabbing people, and the remote-controlled Chief Minister have not yet submitted the list [of beneficiaries]... Those who are sitting in Bengaluru government, the enemies of farmers, are responsible for it,” he said. When Delhi (Union) government gives money to farmers, it hurts the State government because the money would be paid directly to farmers’ accounts leaving no room for misappropriation, the Prime Minister said.
Farm loan waiver
Mr. Modi also raised the issue of farm loan waiver promised by the JD(S) during the Assembly elections and criticised the State government for not fulfilling it completely. “Instead of waiving farm loans, they registered cases against farmers,” he said.
Referring to the problems of sugarcane growers in the State, he said his government had initiated various measures to address the issue, including paying an additional ₹14 per quintal of sugarcane directly to the bank accounts of growers.
“The Government of India will assist sugar mills, which find it difficult to pay the dues to farmers. The government ensures that such mills get loans from banks and pays the interest for one year... To ensure that fluctuations in sugar prices would not affect sugarcane price, the Union government has imposed 100% duty on import of sugar,” said Mr. Modi.
He obliquely referred to former Prime Minister the late Rajiv Gandhi’s famous statement that only 15 paise of one rupee released from Delhi would reach the targeted beneficiary and said: “If one rupee is released from Delhi now, the entire 100 paise would reach the bank accounts of the poor”.
Grand alliance
He concluded his 39-minute speech by hitting at the Opposition’s attempts to form the grand alliance against the BJP. “Modi has become a cause of their [the Opposition] trouble... They are coming together to get rid of Modi; and Modi is striving to get rid of terrorism.”
